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The need to
get broadband to the masses is still growing.
ILECs (define -
news
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alert) still have a stranglehold on the market and their
DSL (news
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alert) offerings absolutely stink when compared to cable. How can
telecommunications companies that are a century old supply an inferior
product to cable - an industry 2 decades old? Ridiculous I say. Worse
yet, ILECS can take months to provision a T1 in some cases! In a world
where we are used to seeing search engine results faster than we can
blink, waiting 60+ days for a T1 is unacceptable. The Asia-Pacific
region is overflowing with bandwidth and we have two choices: slow DSL
or high-speed cable that costs a great deal more. Still, Asian markets
have bandwidth of a greater magnitude than what is available in the US
and it costs less!

And these
problems are here in the US where we invent most of these technologies.
A maze of government regulations coupled with poor decisions made by
most CLECs (define
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alert) has left us with pitiable broadband alternatives. The
situation is far worse in less developed countries where the concept of
laying down fiber rings and lines out to all of the citizens is beyond
comprehension. The last mile, or to be internationally correct, the last
1.6 kilometer problem is very real and needs a solution.

Thankfully
WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability
for Microwave Access) (news
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alert) is the technology that can end this last-mile problem once
and for all by allowing service providers to compete for subscribers
without having to lay down fiber, cable, or rent anything from the ILECS.
WiMAX is synonymous with the IEEE 802.16a standard for broadband
wireless, a technology that allows service providers to serve customers
dozens of miles away with bandwidth in the range of 70-268 Mbps!
Suddenly, competition in the service provider market will be real.
Worldwide, there will be a bonanza of bandwidth and it should cost less
than we are used to paying. First generation
CPE (define -
news
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alert) devices will cost a bit more than $300 and within a year we
could see them drop down the $200 level. Companies like Intel are major
proponents of this technology and as such we can expect to see WiMAX
enabled laptops, PDAs (news
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alert) and phones in the future.

It is in
the world’s best interest to make WiMAX a success.

TMC is
doing its part. We recently launched WiMAXcon; an event collocated with
our Fall Internet Telephony
Conference in LA. The specific dates of WiMAXcon are October 6-7.
VoIP will be a killer app for WiMAX and the collocation of these events
makes infinite sense. If you are a service provider looking to offer
wireless access or VoIP - you need to be at this event! I hope to see
you there.